The Broken Altar is selected to screen at the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival (IC DOCS). Entering its 11th year, IC DOCS is an annual event committed to engaging a local audience with the world through short films (under 30 minutes) that explore the boundaries of documentary and non-fiction filmmaking. Festival judges this year are Cathy Lee Crane and Ernst Karel. The festival runs April 11-13.

I also received word that The Broken Altar is nominated for a Golden Sheaf Award for Experimental Film from the Yorkton Film Festival. The Yorkton Film festival is one of Canada’s oldest film festivals (65 years and counting) and features diverse awards for film and television productions. The festival runs May 23 – 26.

The Broken Altar is screening at the Chicago Underground Film Festival on March 10th, 2013. I’m happy to participate in this festival, as I’ve always found the programming to be incredibly focused and progressive. CUFF opens on March 6th and closes on March 10th. For more information: CUFF

CUFF is also seeking additional funding and any assistance is welcome. Please visit the Indiegogo page if you want to donate to the festival.

This weekend I returned to Montreal to finish The Broken Altar. Its been a long production but that’s what happens when moving cities and teaching full time. I had a great team working with me from the awesome support at Technicolour to the amazing sound team of Stephane Calce and Tim Horlor. The film will be fully complete on December 15th with a freshly struck 35mm print and DCP copy.

Updating a blog can be a second job sometimes and when you fall behind some announcements get lost or delayed.

From the backlog:

A few bright moments and projects developed in this dim, dark November month. On November 2nd, I had an artist talk at the University of Regina entitled “Tracing the Lines: A Filmic Mapping of Both Known and Unknown Places.” This talk was part of a Fine Arts Presentation Series highlighting the work and research of its faculty. There was an excellent crowd that braved an early winter storm and the feedback was exceptional.

In late October, I was approached by my colleague and friend Karl Lemieux, who was working on a video backdrop for country music singer Eric Church for his performance at the CMAs (Country Music Awards) on November 1st. Karl needed additional footage to be integrated with images he shot in Death Valley, USA. Being a fan of Karl’s work and aesthetic, I happily obliged sending him footage that I shot in south-west Saskatchewan. The images made the final cut and the video was played to a live audience and televised on ABC. Thanks to Karl, Gabriel Coutu-Dumont and Brigitte Henry for their work and patience as well.

Below is the performance at the CMAs, featuring the video which includes images from both Karl and myself:

Starting today for four months Videographe’s online Vitheque will be presenting the work of the Double Negative Collective. For my part I’ve chosen to include my film Lola. Others featured are Daïchi Saïto, Karl Lemieux, Malena Szlam, Eduardo Menz, Christopher Becks and Philippe Leonard. There is also a very good article by Mathieu Li-Goyette who vividly describes each work presented. My thanks to Videographe, Karl Lemieux and Jason Pare who worked hard putting this together.

Starting September 20th, 2012, dancer Shannon Litzenberger will be presenting a 4 day dance performance entitled HOMEbody…lessons in prairie living at the Winchester Street Theatre in Toronto.  I had the pleasure of working with Shannon, editing the accompanying videos that will be projected in the theatre.